Domain Names

The Business Of Domains: Shifting The Paradigm

For a business that started with few competitors and unlimited markets, the domain name registration trade has certainly become quite difficult and price sensitive. As the owner or manager of your firm, you have a basic choice to make: You can pull back and ride out this difficult period, or you can use this disruption to your advantage. Can a savvy owner or manager bring profitable growth to his or her company? One positive answer may not be in familiar spaces, but in new markets. more

When Two Trademarks Aren’t Confusingly Similar to One Trademark

As I've written before, domain name disputes involving multiple trademarks sometimes raise interesting issues, including whether a panel can order a domain name transferred to one entity without consent of the other. While panels typically have found ways to resolve this issue, one particularly troubling fact pattern arises when a panel denies a complaint simply because a disputed domain name contains trademarks owned by two different entities. more

Lawful Registrations of Domain Names

Doug Isenberg notes in a recent CircleID essay that two records in domain name disputes were broken in 2017, namely number of cybersquatting claims (3,036 in 2016, 3,073 in 2017) and number of domain names implicated (5354 in 2016, 6370 in 2017). Fairly consistently from year to year, approximately twenty percent of filings are terminated (withdrawn): whether by settlement or nolo contendere we don't know. (All of these statistics come from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). more

Asserting but Not Proving Cybersquatting Under the UDRP

Having trademarks (registered or unregistered) is the prerequisite for maintaining a UDRP, but having one is not conclusive of either Respondent’s lack of rights or legitimate interests or that it registered and is using the domain name in bad faith. The cautionary tale in many of these cases, especially for the Complainant who has the burden of proof, is that it has to satisfy each of the elements in the three subsections... more

Are Auctions the Last Resort to Determine gTLD Winners? I Vote Open Business Plan Competitions

I have been reading through the last gTLD applicant guidebook and have wondered whether all my efforts, traveling, attending all major music conference and lobbying come with any merit. How do you define a community? What is the difference between a dotGreece, dotGay or dotMusic community? ...Whether we like it or not, the point system is what ICANN has set up to determine the winners. If you were to ask me I would create a different method of scoring. It is one of open competition. more

Legacy TLD .ORG Takes On New Branding Focus as Part of a New Transformative Journey, Says PIR

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit organization in charge of operating the 34-year-old legacy top-level domain .ORG on Tuesday revealed a new global brand, including a new visual identity and a new website named TheNew.org. more

No Time Bar, No Laches under the UDRP

Two Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) decisions posted this month involved domain names registered 20 and 21 years ago, David Duchovny v. Alberta Hot Rods c/o Jeff Burgar, 21 years and Commonwealth Bank of Australia v. Registration Private, Domains By Proxy, 20 years. Complainants prevailed in both cases. The domain names stand out as being the oldest to have been found registered in bad faith, and transferred. more

The gTLD Opera

The curtain rises on January 12th 2012 but key players are still singing different tunes. Let's peek into their performance as they start taking center stage. FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, has sent a letter to ICANN on December 16th 2011. Re: Consumer Protection Concerns Regarding New gTLDs. They write; "We write now to highlight again the potential for significant consumer harm resulting from the unprecedented increase in new gTLDs." The following paragraph clearly highlights the lack of information about the ICANN gTLD platform. more

Switching on the Light: Expression of Interest for New TLDs

They say late converts are the most passionate believers. Until now I haven't supported the Expression of Interest (EOI) for new TLDs, the proposed mechanism to measure the number and type of likely applications. Not because it won't work (I think it'll work fine) but because I didn't think it was necessary. I've changed my mind. Here's why. more

CAICT Holds ICANN 59 China Internet Community Readout Session

In afternoon of 14th July, the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT) and ICANN Beijing Engagement Center jointly held the ICANN 59 China Internet Community Readout Session. Mr. Zhang Ya, Deputy Director of Information and Communication Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), made his presence and gave opening remarks on the meeting. Over 40 representatives from the Cyberspace Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, domain name registries and registrars, industrial organizations, institutes and universities participated in the seminar. more

DDI Integration: We Need IPAM

I am a big fan of DDI (DNS, DHCP and IPAM) as magical trio to manage all transactions on network infrastructures... Or to say the least: make it possible. Basically it makes these "Core Network Services" concise, manageable and integrated. It basically makes the network infrastructures of today and the future possible. There is however one thing that continuously seems to irritate when talking about integrating these services on networks. more

Vint Cerf Says He Is in Favor of .ORG Acquisition, Explains Why

In a post published today titled, "A Stronger Future for .org and the Internet," by Vint Cerf -- often referred to as one the father's of the Internet – he has expressed his disappointment with the controversy surrounding Ethos Capital's proposed acquisition of the Public Interest Registry (operator of .ORG domain). more

Domain Name Registrations Reach 209.8 Million, 2.2 Percent Increase over 2010 Q4

The latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign reports 4.5 million domain names were added to the Internet in the first three months of 2011. According to the report, the first quarter of 2011 closed with a base of more than 209.8 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), or a 2.2 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2010. Registrations grew by 15.3 million, or 7.9 percent year over year. more

The NameSentry Report: Benchmarking Abuse Levels in the Domain Name Industry

On July 10th Architelos released the first NameSentry Report, benchmarking abuse levels in the domain name industry. For some time now, a debate has raged about the potential impact of new gTLDs on Internet safety and security, namely abusive registrations such as phishing, spam, malware, and so on. However, without benchmarking the current state, how can we realistically evaluate if new gTLDs have made any measureable difference in the level of abuse? more

Holiday Shoppers Beware: Tips on Protecting Brand Owners and Consumers from Domain Security Threats

With the COVID-19 pandemic persisting, online shopping will be the preferred method for the 2020 holiday shopping season. While staying home to shop is the safest option right now, it means consumers are more vulnerable to online fraud, counterfeits, and cyber crime. Increased online activity provides opportunities for unscrupulous infringers to abuse trusted brand names to drive visitors to their own fraudulent content. more